Where would you put a new Target?

I’m still blown away by all the Target love in this recent post. By my most recent count, the commenters professing undying loyalty to Target outnumbered the big corporation-hating skeptics by something like 101 to 2. Do the hippies even read this site any more?

usgwarchives.org

We know it’s fireproof …

The discussion also turned unexpectedly to the subject of places where new Targets should open, which seemed ripe for its own topic. Please let us know the best Bay Area locations for a new Target in the comments of this post.

You can try a more serious approach, or something more, umm, fanciful. I’m going mostly for the latter, and, for the sake of argument, eliminating historical preservation, environmental impact reports and architectural logic from the equation. (I’m also only choosing locations that are within walking distance from my house or the Chronicle building.)

My picks are below. Yours in the comments …

The U.S. Mint: I’m hearing that a group will transform this favorite field trip location from yesteryear into a museum, opening as soon as 2012. And God bless them. When I walk by the Mint at night now, it isn’t swarming with rats like it was five years ago. But that still gives us three years to make it a Target! Or better yet, a Target-themed museum!

Virgin Megastore/Metreon: A Target with one cart escalator is already mind-bending. Imagine how insanely awesome your shopping experience would be with three cart escalators. The Virgin Megastore on Market is closing down and Sony is pulling the PlayStation and Sony stores out of the Metreon at Fourth and Mission, making both of these properties ideal for a Target in downtown San Francisco.

panoramio.com

The real estate won’t be cheap, but the view is spectacular.

All of MacArthur Boulevard: Yes, I still love Oakland. And there’s a really good Cambodian restaurant and a donut store that my kid likes that we would really miss. But try to imagine how convenient it would be to have a skinny eight mile long Target — built kind of like the Stanford linear accelerator.

The Mormon Temple in Oakland: Don’t mistake this as some kind of knock on the religion. I like Mormon people. But my mind can’t get around the idea of the Taj Mahal of Targets being less than two miles from my house. (And visible from the 580 freeway!) While it’s doubtful the current owners would want to give it up, and eminent domain laws probably won’t apply here, it’s worth making an offer. Maybe a lifetime supply of novelty T-shirts for the entire church?

(Just so it’s clear, three of the four locations mentioned above are kind of a joke. But I’m completely serious about putting one in the Mormon Temple Metreon.)